Abstracts

Karl R. Wernhart – Christoph Carl Fernberger – Erster Österreicher im PazifikThe Austrian nobleman Christoph Carl Fernberger was the first Austrian who crossed the Pacific Ocean involuntarily in the years 1622-1628. From the period before 1668 there are only a few accounts of the Chamorro so that any surviving documentary material becomes important evidence in evaluating the accounts of the missionaries. In the private archives of the Counts of Harrach in Vienna there is a diary (post eventum) of Christoph Carl Fernberger who visited the Marianas in 1623 in the course of his circumnavigation of the world. Although Fernberger’s account is very brief and somewhat incomplete it provides some interesting details of Chamorro life in the period in which first contact between Europeans and natives took place. The article highlights Fernberger’s origin and important steps of his journey.

Hermann Mückler – Baron Anatol von Hügel in Fiji 1875-1877This article examines the importance of Baron Anatol von Hügel’s stay in Fiji for two and a half years between 1875 and 1877. An English citizen, born in Florence but of Austrian origin, Anatol von Hügel followed in the footsteps of his father Karl Freiherr von Hügel who made a journey to India and the edge of the Pacific forty years earlier. Anatol von Hügel’s diary gives a vivid account of Fiji at the time it be-came a British colony. As a friend of the first Governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, he was allowed to stay at Government House in Levuka to prepare his ornithological and anthropological collections. At this time he was witness to serious political decisions and changes which took place in Fiji. Several trips to some of the Fiji Islands as well as to the inner part of Viti Levu, Fiji’s main island, are well described in his records. He became a friend of King Cakobau’s second son Timoci Tavanavanua and met most of the important people who influenced Fijian history at that time. His collec-tion later founded the basis of the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthro-pology, of which Anatol von Hügel was curator for over thirty eight years.

Erich Kolig – Der Österreicher Andreas Reischek in Neuseeland: Ehrenhäuptling oder Erzfeind der Maori?This article examines the role of the Austrian scientist Andreas Reischek in New Zealand, who – after fulfilling a two year contract as a taxidermist at the Canterbury Museum in the years 1877-1879 – travelled another ten years and collected thou-sands of (material) objects in the fields of zoology, botany, ornithology, mineralogy and ethnography. In particular the latter caused criticism in the rigorous way he col-lected items from the indigenous Maori. Today Reischek is disputed as an example of an insensitive and highly immoral scientist of the 19th century. In the 1980s the Wiener Museum für Völkerkunde, which houses most of Reischeks ethnographic collection, returned a mummy to its Maori origin, which was originally stolen under adventurous circumstances. Despite Reischek’s valuable and extensive contribution to the exploration of New Zealand, he is still today heavily discussed.

Georg Sauer – Zwei Maoris in Wien in den Jahren 1859-1860 im Spiegel zeitgenössischer PressestimmenThe world-cruise of the Austrian scientific expedition on board the Imperial and Royal frigate „Novara“ (1857-1859) spent 18 days in New Zealand. The head of the expedition, Commodore Bernhard von Wüllerstorf-Urbair, invited two Maoris to travel on with the „Novara“ and to visit Austria. Wiremu Toetoe, a heavily tat-tooed 32 year old man, a chief of a Waikato tribe in Rangia Whia and his fellow traveller Hemera Rerehau, joined the Novara crew. The mentors of the two Maoris in Vienna were Karl Scherzer and Ferdianand Hochstetter, both members of the Novara-Expedition, Alois Auer the director auf the Imperial and Royal „Hof- und Staatsdruckerei“ and Mr. Zimmerl a member of Auer’s staff. Both Maoris stayed at the home of Zimmerl in Ottakring. Auer offered to take the two Maoris for the duration of their stay in Vienna to the State Printery where they learned to engrave and print, and how to carry out lithography und copper plate engraving. Their first public appearance was at the celebration of Friedrich Schiller’s 100th birthday – parade in Vienna on 8th of November 1859. Between the various coloured costumes and suits of the members of the torchlight-procession, the two New Zealanders raised the most interest of all. The two Maoris visited various factories, government offices, museums and other important sights of Vienna.. Before they left Vienna on May 26th 1860, the Emperor Franz Joseph presented them with a prin-ting press, including type fonts and tools.

Inge Felix-Zemlicka – Die Beziehungen zwischen der Österreichisch- Ungarischen Monarchie und Hawaii von 1844 bis 1901The purpose of this paper is to present aspects of the relationship between the Aus-tro-Hungarian Monarchy and Hawai’i from 1844 to 1901, based on written sources, travel books, logbooks, diplomatic correspondence and newspaper articles written in German, English and Hawaiian. On One hand impressions of the Hawaiians in Austria as well as vice versa are given, on the other hand the impact of the Austri-ans on the Hawaiian Islands and the Hawaiian culture is mentioned, listed in chronological order and under the rules of ethnohistorical method. The main influence of the Austrians is considered to be in the field of music. The band of the vessel S.M. „Donau“ (1st Austro-Hungarian ship visiting Hawai’i) played waltzes, melodies of operas and operettas in public concerts. The Hawaiian people and their King were very pleased by these heart-warming melodies and the skill of the band, and the Royal Hawaiian Military Band (founded in 1836) was reformed according to this example within the next two years. The band – under the German bandmaster Henry Berger, who used to play with Strauss – continued this „Viennese Tradition“, which is still alive today.

Johann Stockinger – „…So umfährt man die ganze Welt“; Manila, Drehscheibe zwischen Ost und West aus früher österreichischer SichtThis article highlights the importance of Manila as a pivot for intense contact between East and West in colonial times. Located at the crossroads between East Asia and South America, the famous Acapulco-Manila-Galeon-trade was established soon after the Spanish took over the Philippines as a colony. While in the first chapters this part of Philippine-Spanish history is discussed, the second part deals with the special Austrian-Philippine relationship and early contacts of Austrian monks, travellers, traders and discoverers, starting with Odorich von Portenau, an Austrian monk who probably landed in the Philippines on his way to China in the 15th century. Georg Christoph Fernberger described the people and the life of Manila and wrote a valuable account from the 16th century. Among others, the Austrian frigat „Novara“ spent some time in Manila on her way round the world in the years 1857-1859. The vivid account of Karl von Scherzer shows the city as a place in which Spanish influence and rigid colonialization had caused significant damage to the Philippine people.

Johann Stockinger – „Ich interessiere mich von jeher nur für die spanischen Colonien“ Neueste Erkenntnisse für die Blumentritt-Forschung aus der Korrespondenz mit Hugo SchuchardtMost information about the productive relationship between the Philippine scientist, reformer and now Philippine hero José Rizal and the former Austrian teacher Ferdinand Blumentritt can be found in the Rizal-Blumentritt-Correspondence. Now a second valuable source has been found by the author: the correspondence between Blumentritt and the linguist Hugo Schuchardt over a period of 30 years (1882-1912). The article highlights the passage of this correspondence in which Blumentritt refered to Rizal and recommended a meeting between Schuchardt and Rizal. Some new details about the skills and ideas of Rizal are described as well as his last letter which was written the day before Rizal was executed by the Spanish occupants who ruled the Philippines at the time.

Hermann Mückler – Alma Karlins Aufenthalt in der Südsee – Tragödie und Triumph Alma Karlin, born in Celje (former Cilli), undertook a journey around the world in the years 1919-1928. She spent more than three years in the South Sea Islands where she experienced the exotic life of the „savage“ people of Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and British New Guinea. As a woman travelling alone, she had to fight against male prejudice and several other hindrances and troubles. When she caught Malaria she was close to death but survived with her strong will to continue the trip. She collected many artefacts and described the life of the indigenous Melanesian people. Her drawings and essays were successfully published in Germany and Austria and she became a well known writer. Despite her lack of a scientific approach she gives a vivid account of life and customs in the Pacific Islands at colonial times.

Ingolf Schütz-Müller – Ein Österreicher im Auftrag der Vereinten Nationen im PazifikThis article reflects aspects of personal experience of an UN-coordinator who spent four years in the Pacific Island region to organize and supervise development projects. The main focus lies on a listing of all major projects implemented in the years 1977-1981.

Hermann Mückler – In Memoriam: Symposium anläßlich des 30. Todestages von Robert von Heine-GeldernThe interpretation of similar cultural elements in different cultures led to several theories, of which diffusionism is a concept the famous Austrian anthropologist Robert von Heine-Geldern adopted to create a model of the spread of culture. Heine-Geldern who wrote works about the ethnoarchaelogy of Southeast Asia and Oceania and the megalith-complex for example, died 30 years ago in 1968. To honour his importance for the scientific community, a symposium was held from April 30 to May 2nd 1998 at a Viennese hotel. The speakers from different fields reflected the importance of the concept of diffusion as a methodological frame to discuss the spread of culture and migration dynamics.